Just Blessed in Life May 2014

Duane always laughs at me because when I say I need to run to the store for a few things, it usually means a CART of things from a Restaurant Supply Store! LOL! Really, this only feeds our family for a couple of weeks. 

a few things

Eating out is rare for us because we are such a large group, so when we do, it is very exciting! We decided one Sunday morning to go to Denny's for a brunch. I have memories of my parents taking me as a child and hadn't been in years. We decided to try our local one out. Everyone was excited that they could add coffee, hot Chocolate or juice to their orders as we usually all get waters. I was excited to get some grits that this southern girl had not had in a while.  As we were sitting there, a gentleman walks up to Duane and whispers something to him. Duane thanked him and the man walked off. Duane said, "Guys, that man just paid for all of our Brunch! Can you believe it?"  So our bill ended up being paid for except for my grits that I forgot to order! I love how God sends little blessings at the time you least expect it.  Since we had planned to pay for our Brunch, we  all agreed to pay it forward and paid for a another larger family that had come in and ate. I hope with these actions of our kids seeing that when we are blessed, we take that blessing and forward it. and that in the process we are imprinting the joy of giving to others on our kids.

Sarah- the daughter of a missionary friend who lived with us last year and Allenni and Ben and Nathaniel

                                       

The other part of the crew- Graham, Isaiah, Andrew, Violetti, and Eli

The crew

our bill

Later on in the week, Duane got this note from one of his patients' family.  

It is no secret our family loves Ice Cream- On a psychological note, when you are creating bonds with older children, you can eat ice cream together around a fun time or sitting close and the body will secrete the same chemicals in the brain as when a baby is nursing or sucking a bottle and being nurtured and trust is developed. 

When I learned this years ago, We ate A LOT of ice cream. So Ice Cream in our house is not bought in the 1.5 qt size! No, it is purchased by the 5 gallon buckets. :) 

We rarely get rain in the spring or summer. So when a storm cloud like this arises, it is pretty cool

 The weather is great around here in May. So we hang out a lot on the patio and eat ice cream and chill

Violetti calls her new hairdo, Barbie hair.

What's a mom to do When it is 100 plus Degrees - JUNE 29, 2013

In the summer, Redding, CA can have a few hot weeks. We've been really blessed these last couple of summers to have had cooler weather.  This summer though, has had some serious heat going on.  There are some days, you just lay around. I love to get my hair played with so how could I say no when Allenni wanted to straighten my hair and do my makeup?  Then Eli got the bright idea to massage my feet. "Why not be pampered?" I said to myself.  They were surely rewarded with the homemade cinnamon rolls I had made and we were one big happy family. Later on in the evening, I found Duane and Graham in the same position, on their iphone and itouch.  They both were probably reading something scientific. yeah. Probably.

Getting My Life Back in Order and GREAT THINGS HAPPENING

Hello everyone!
I really do miss blogging and I know I have said it before, but I really mean it this time!! Facebook has seemed to be the easy way out where I can run in and type a phrase or post a picture and be out in a few minutes!  I know if I sit down, words will flow, kids will interrupt and blog may not be coherent!  But that shouldn't stop me huh?

Well, After having moved twice in less than 2 years, having a daughter move back to AL and get married, one take off on her own, 2 other kids suffering trauma and having to get help, one 16 year old joining our family and adjusting, running our home in AL as a vacation rental while living here in CA,  trying to help two 20 year olds, living at home, get jobs and settle here in CA, I THINK my Life is about to "normalize". I'm not even sure I know what normal really is!! haha!  We always have drama and activity around here on a scale of 10 more than most families!! Is that normal??

    Anyway, a lot is in store for this coming year.  And has been in the works for quite some time. Duane and I were asked to write a chapter for a book for a dear friend and mentor of ours and who is an awesome daughter of of God. We are almost complete with the chapter and she with the book!  Our chapter deals with sex- trafficking.  That launches our next book we will be starting on very soon that is a practical/ spiritual toolkit of things we have learned through 16 years of parenting older adopted children. I am very excited about this as it has been on my heart for several years.  I am an outside of the box thinker, so be prepared to be pushed outside of your normal thinking!  

We also will be launching with a friend of mine, her brillant idea of a website that caters to and coaches adoptive parents! I am SO EXCITED about this as well!  Along side of that, Duane and I will be launching our own website that will promote the Holistic health and wellness of adoptive parents both spiritually and physically.  As you know Duane is a Pediatrician and is awesome with kids.  In the future, we hope to have a curriculum to train adoptive/ foster parents. We hope to hold respite camps and continued training for families, so they won't die like ours almost did.  

Duane and I are being pulled to get involved on a larger scale with the Sex- Trafficking issue and have been in training this past year for it as well.  I will post in later blogs more about all of that. 

In addition to all of that, My art is back on the scene and I am working to produce more works this upcoming year.  I have produced several works this year with two others almost finished and you can see them here .   

So here is where I am and I am excited about this upcoming year and what Duane and I will be able to offer to the adoption community and to families.

I am so behind!

Once again, I cannot beleive it has been since July that I have blogged. My how life flies and I want to share it all with you. I hope you all have not given up on me. One of my goals is to get back to blogging almost every day.

A lot has happened since July.

One o our daughters has eloped (with our help ) and went ahead and gotten married. We love Johnny and I will post pics of them. She moved back to AL and now lives in our guest house with her husband and helps with our vacation rental there.

We have greatly missed her.

We are finally getting settled in here in our new home and are loving living in a house on the water. The kids are loving being able to fish all the time and swim. We are still having great warm weather.

We have killed 3 rattle snakes here, two by our front door and one by our deck. A little scary as Eli about stepped on two of them.

So is life in Cali.

Graham broke his arm AGAIN! by jumping on a water trampoline and then proceeded a couple of weeks later to jump off a bridge in Whiskey Town Lake with the water proof cast he talked the doctor into giving him!!! Talk about getting mama riled up!

Just a couple of weeks ago, we got a new daughter! This was a complete surprise to us from God. She is 16 years old and is from Uganda. God brought her to us through a disruption.

We all are so delighted to have her as part of our family.

Well, I better head to bed, it is late

We rescued a canadian goose

Well, the pictures are as dramatic as the story but we rescued a canadian goose. Living on the lake is awesome as all kinds of wildlife are here and I just realized a few days ago that if we walk across the street, the Sacramento River is there. I wish I give a panaoramic view of where we live. we are blessed to get to enjoy this for a while.

Anyway, Duane and I were out taking a walk at dusk and heard and saw a flock of wild geese fly over. Just a minute later, 1 goose flew by and I made the comment, Well, he's lagging behind and look how low he is. Well, then we heard this crash. Duane had to go into the house, but I just knew that goose had crashed. I went walking down the street and it was hard to see him but there he was, laying on the ground. If you have never heard a goose wail in pain, it is sad to hear. Anyway, I couldn't let him sit there and get eaten by the coyotes we probably have, so I went and got one of our dog crates and a boat oar. By the time Duane got back out, I was coaxing/pushing that goose into the crate. Poor thing looked liked he had a serious wing break. He was totally confused. Duane decided he'd better wear gloves picking up the crate and sure enough it was a good idea because the goose got to hissing and snapping. A neighbor called the sherriff who put us in touch with the wildlife rescue and so rather late a t night Duane and Graham hauled the thing over to meet the lady. We think it was a young one because it wasn't very large. I hope it ended up ok.

Bye Magy!!!!

Magy has been missing her fiance plus the opportunity arose for her to have a job helping with our vacation rental house so we all decided it would be a good idea for her to move back to AL. We know Johnny was happy with that decision. ( He was so happy when he picked her up at the airport, he shoved flowers in her face!!! :-) We are all going to miss her for sure. We moved to a little historic western town called Cottonwood. Magy loves Mexican food and so we decided to try this little authentic looking mexican diner on the night before she left. As it turns out the food wasn't too bad.I am so proud of the woman she has become and is becoming,
Duane, Graham and Me
Crazy pic!
E and Allenni love their big sister!!!!!!!
I don't think Anyone was ready for this pic
Allenni keeps saying, i'll be the only girl. hey what about me?, I ask. You're momma. she says.

The moving truck

I don't think this kitchen is as big as the one I left. Where is the kitchen? It took over 4 days to get all these unpacked and put away. Some had to go into storage.
I can see the counters!!!!!!


WE were so excited that the moving truck showed up. the kids couldnt wait to get some of their stuff. Isiah was so patient and waited for his new spiderman bike to come off the truck. It never came off. Bless his little heart. As soon as Duane gets paid, its off to get him one. The truck was only half full but we still did not get it all in the house. We had to rent a storage place. As I am unpacking, I am wondering, why did I bring this? and this?

We have been in CA for over month now!

If you walk down the street this is the view
The water trampoline - graham and Jillian a neighbor
isaiah loving the watermelon
Eli loving the watermenlon - july 4th
Maggie and graham
Allenni with her face painted by a neighbor

My how time flies! I cannot believe we have been in CA for over a month. What a whirlwind it has been! We found a house after 2 weeks of being here. A little small for us but feasible. After being moved in a week, the landlord asked us to move and if we didn't our rent would go up $600 month! ugh! In the end after we found another house that was actually bigger and closer to Bethel church, he said we couldn't leave. We couldn't afford breaking the lease, so we stayed where we were. Our house is right on the lake and the wildlife, sunrises and sunsets and views are incredible. We are learning to live "closer" together. We finally got our boxes, hardly any furniture( and that is another whole story) and I wonder why I even brought half of this stuff.

We had to rent a storage unit to hold the stuff we don't need immediately. Going from a 8000 sq. ft. to a 2500sq. foot house is quite a transition. We are missing quite a few things and have lots of broken, crushed boxes and things. We finally got our vehicles after an ordeal so that helped out tremendously.

Our puppies were the easiest thing to get here and they are missing their space as well but they like the weather and the nice soft grass. Poor little Millie, our old Dachshund, jumped into the lake the other day after Duane took out out the inflatable boat and sort of sunk into it because it wasn't blown up enough. Duane had to rescue her! she thought her daddy was in trouble! Millie does not like water and always would stay a way from our pool. It was sort of sweet. The kids are loving fishing off our deck.

Allenni is quite the little fisher woman. We didnt have poles yet since they were in our furniture, so duane cut some poles and I got some line and hooks at walmart and made the kids some poles. you wouldn't believe how many they have caught! Now that the real poles are here, Bass have been the fish to catch.

Duane started his orientation for work last week and we have missed him.

Bethel Church has been refreshing for us though Sundays are tiring. We live about 19 miles from Church. We haven't really made new friends to hang out with but we have great neighbors.

It is a great gated community but we have POA police- who ride around to see if you are breaking any community laws. That has been interesting. Graham has proudly had his picture taken by the POA for jumping into the lake off of a small bridge with a group of boys. Allenni, Andrew, Eli and Graham have been screamed at for having cookie, lemonade/ice cream stands by a lady who must not like kids or different skin colors. :-) (Yes, that is our first experience with that surprisingly) (CA or the Community has no laws against kids selling little things. I checked)

Our street has lots of kids and the community pool has given Ben and Nathaniel lots of people to talk to.

Maggie moved back to AL this week. She is going to be our house keeper for our house we set up as a vacation rental. She and Johnny have set a wedding date for Dec. 31. 2011.

There is so much more going on but it would take a long time to write it all.

Check out our vacation rental "Open Heaven" for your next vacation or youth retreat.

the link is http://www.vrbo.com/358591

Moving Day has arrived!!!!

I think we had close to 300 boxes! But not too much furniture

Moving Day came and they were early! We were still packing while they were loaded. I do not recommend this moving company to anybody! We had a lot of hassle and many things in the end were missing and heavily broken. Email me if you need to know the company.

On the other side, the moving guys themselves were great. As you can tell from these pics, Our kids made friends pretty easily. These guys were awesome! They were all from the NJ area. Two had been raised in the foster system and one was from Africa.
I do forget all of their names at the moment- with Nathaniel
ELi, Isaiah and Nathaniel

Miss Magy being cool
Nathaniel thinks he is really cool
Mom has strong guys to move her furniture!
He is the boss!
Isaiah offered the guys one of cookies that nana had given him
It really touched this guy I think.

Moving to CA in 8 days!!!!

Well, the movers come on June 2nd and between packing, getting the new construction finished up, having a daughter move out and another one get engaged, setting up our house for a vacation rental, finishing up a commissioned painting, and celebrating a birthday or two every month since Feb. , I have been busy!

I really had good intentions of keeping the blog more current and I apologize to those of you who follow. I will have to move some pictures from facebook over here to update.

We are really excited about our move and are SO GLAD that we are flying now instead of driving. I found a great flight that leaves Nashville and arrives in Sacramento six hours later. no changing planes! That will help tremendously in getting this crew there. If they had an app that would let me blog through my phone, I might get more on here. maybe they do and I haven't discovered it yet.

We have 6 days before we leave town and no house to live in, in CA! we have looked and looked but there is none BIG enough where we would like to be living! Through it all, we are trusting that God has it all worked out. We do have a place for 10 days to stay in while we house hunt and the kids can swim and enjoy themselves.

So in case I don't post for another few weeks, I'll see you in CA!!

Our Trip to CA, Early Feb.

Isaiah loved watching the planes
In Sacramento Airport! Notice all the luggage stacked up behind us! It was the columns in the airport! It was breathtaking in a startling kind of way when you first walk in. I thought it was very creative.
We had the drawing for the watercolor "Defender Among Them" while in CA. Isaiah was drawing names
Ben was so excited to attend Bethel!
We were excited to find that Georgi Banoff was speaking. He is a Bulgarian and ministers to the forgotten gypsies of Bulgaria. Ben Got to meet him and it was a highlight of his week.
Duane signing the agreement to join Lassen Medical Group!!!!
We drove up to Mt. Lassen and this was a point to stop at
Benjamin
Ben and Isaiah
Ben is a great Big brother
Getting snow to make some snowballs. I think mommy got those thrown at her!
My man and me
When we got to the Lassen Park, there were people sledding and having a good time. The guys are standing on 0ver 7 ft snow. See the handicap sign? Just 45 minutes back at where we were staying it was 70 degrees. up here it was a little cooler.

Duane and I went to CA in February along with Ben and Isaiah to interview at a medical practice and to look at houses. They liked Duane enough to offer him a job and we liked them enough to accept. The area we will be living in is just gorgeous! Mountains everywhere. It really is unlike anywhere we have ever lived.

At this time we have decided to put our house here in AL up on vrbo.com as a vacation rental. Our area is known for lots of attractions, the TN River, Lakes, Festivals, and tournaments. So we think we will have no problem renting it. So... if you are coming this way and need a place to stay...